The front end of a typical automotive vehicle contains at least one, and usually a pair of heat exchangers. An engine cooling system radiator, with large, plastic side tanks, is mounted between a pair of structural automotive body side rails, generally isolated therefrom by rubber pads to absorb vibrations. The large molded plastic tanks provide a convenient foundation to which other structure can be fixed, once the radiator itself is fixed in place. At a minimum, a cooling fan support structure is mounted to the rear of the radiator, fastened to the back of the radiator side tanks generally with threaded fasteners. When the vehicle also has an air conditioning system condenser, that is typically mounted to the front of the radiator tanks, in similar fashion, also with separate fasteners. An example of such a mounting scheme may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,080. Systems are known in which the number of fasteners is minimized by using integral hooks molded into and onto the radiator tanks, into which special brackets on the condenser and fan support are slide fitted. While the number of fasteners is minimized, the necessity of providing dedicated mounting brackets, especially on heat exchanger tanks, is a considerable expense. Brackets must either be separately welded to a tank, or integrally manufactured with the tank, as part of a continuous extrusion, in which case extra extruded material must be cut away to leave a discrete bracket. Either alternative requires additional manufacturing steps and expense, to create structure that is extraneous to the basic structure of the heat exchanger itself.
A relatively recent trend is the so called modularization of automotive components, in which more and more separate components are integrated into larger structures at the component plant level, which can then be installed more quickly and inexpensively at the assembly plant level. All areas have been affected, including the vehicle "front end". Various front end module designs found in the prior art generally show a basic box like structure, fixed to the front end of the vehicle just behind the front bumper or grill, or even forming an integral part of the front end structure of the vehicle body. The various heat exchangers and fans are shown mounted to or within the "box," but often with no detail as to exactly how the installation would take place. Other designs, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,554 and co assigned patent application Ser. No. 09/299,504 clearly indicate that the heat exchanger mounting would be basically conventional, that is, using the same dedicated brackets and separate threaded fasteners used to mount heat exchangers in older, non modularized designs.